Computer systems have affected many aspects of society including the way we live and work. Computer systems now commonly perform a host of tasks, such as shopping, accounting, and word processing, that prior to the advent of the computer system were typically performed manually. Due to the physical nature of accessing information prior to the advent of computers, the volume of information that could be accessed was limited and it was difficult to inadvertently delete or modify a document. Today, computers have streamlined mundane tasks, such as creating, deleting, modifying, or simply viewing a document, to the point that a computer user can accomplish these tasks with little more than a mouse click or a key stroke. Over the course of a typical day a user may access many different files for a variety of purposes. Over the period of a week or month the sheer number of documents accessed by a typical office worker can be staggering. Due to the impermanent and editable nature of electronic data, seemingly innocuous operator errors can result in profound and deleterious mistakes causing irreparable loss or corruption of important user data.
Microsoft Windows™ based products have attempted to address these issues in a piecemeal manner with limited success. For example, the Internet Explorer™ web browser includes a “history” function that allows a user to view a list of addresses of webpages visited by the user. Microsoft Word™ and Microsoft Excel™ include an undo function which enables the user to undo document edits in a rigid step-by-step reverse chronological order. Microsoft Outlook™ maintains time stamped lists of emails sent and received, which can be word searched to aid the user in finding a particular email.
Each of the aforementioned usability functions are application centric. The undo feature in Word or Excel is only applicable to the particular document currently open and all undo history is lost upon closing the document. Similarly, the history function within Internet Explorer provides little more than a simple read-only history of web addresses previously visited and has no relevance in Word, Excel, or Outlook.